I've told a few people through DMs that I started collecting Air Miles and other travel rewards points to distract myself from postpartum anxiety. My "big idea" was to collect enough points to take my family on vacation for as little cash outlay as possible. This idea kind of grew over the pandemic years to a "year of Disney and Universal" where we would get annual passes and go as much as we could.
I struggled with the decision to travel over March Break. My husband has long covid and my toddler is not yet vaccinated. I was speaking with my friend who is a psychologist and she really encouraged me to go. She said the change of scenery and warmth does wonders for people.
I also struggled because Disney isn't yet selling Annual Passes. Ideally we would have started both with the "Year of" plan at the same time. However I finally decided to go on a YOLO basis. If there is one thing the last few years has shown me, the future is never predictable and I need to seize the moments when they come. I bought N95s for everyone and wall-to-wall insurance and off we went.
We headed to Universal for 6 days over March Break. We surprised my daughter for her 11th birthday. I woke her up at 3 a.m. last Saturday and told her we had to go to the airport to "meet some people". The "people" were friends of mine who got up at 4 a.m. and met us dressed up as wizards with a banner and balloons. They told her she was going to Harry Potter Wizarding World and she shrieked! (Sidebar: Her guess was that we would be meeting a Ukrainian family at the airport to welcome and help them and she was excited about that idea. We are turning that interest into a fundraiser we will do next weekend.)
The rest of the first day we got settled, went to the American Girl store and got groceries at Publix.
(We stayed at the Residence Inn Near Universal on points, for the space and ability to make our own food. I wanted to keep costs down and reduce our exposure by avoiding eating indoors. Other benefits I discovered were avoiding March Break food lines and calorie regulation. Also it's not really pleasant for us to eat in restaurants with a picky, active toddler. I think I would do it this way again but food plan a little better. We spent about $200 on food over the 6 days and ended up abandoning some unopened in the fridge. I know this doesn't work for everyone but it went well for us.)
The next day we went to guest services and bought 3/4 Premier Annual Passes and picked up the one we bought with Air Miles Personal Shopper. We also got my daughter's disability assistance pass set up. The customer service with all of this was so excellent I had to pass on my regards to the supervisor. It was absolutely welcoming and wonderful.
This was the day it was 6 degrees Celsius so even though it was March Break, the first few hours of the day were really low in attendance. As a result we were fully immersed in Harry Potter world. My daughter had on her robes and we took in the detail and enchantment. We went to Ollivanders and she was selected for the wand ceremony. Her want had a unicorn hair core in it which is lovely because we all think if her as our unicorn. We had butterbeer, did spells, and went on rides.
For my son who is 3, the Jurassic Park area really did it for him. We spent hours chilling out and exploring Camp Jurassic. What a cool, cool play area. He also really loved the shows and parade at Universal Studios Florida.
We left the parks each day by 1-2 p.m. for family naptime, followed by swims, supper and family movie nights. As a result, we really did need the 4-5 days we had to feel like we fully experienced the parks.
Our main souvenirs were:
- The Ollivander wand
- A refillable butterbeer mug
- A dinosaur bubble wand
- Chocolate frogs and every-flavour beans for gifts
Our "fun food" was:
- Every type of butterbeer except the hot kind (including fudge and ice cream)
- The "big pink" donut from Springfield
A lot of the week we had to contend with crowds but we used a few strategies:
- We rope-dropped early entry every morning which we got with the Annual Pass, arriving at the park between 6-6:20 a.m.
- We double-booked a hotel night at Royal Pacific ($475 USD + tax) to get two days of Express Passes. (We stayed there and the kids really enjoyed the pool.)
- We started each day at Harry Potter world and bailed by 8:30 a.m. each morning to avoid the wall-to-wall people.
- We wore masks in lines and on rides.
- Our Annual Passes come with free basic Express Passes after 4 p.m. but we didn't use that because we didn't have the energy lol.
The other big takeaway for me was the absolute necessity of noise cancelling headphones for all of the members of my family except me.
Onto my savings strategy with my "travel-hacking" hobby. We got:
- 5 nights on points at the Residence Inn
- 1 night at an airport hotel with Scene+ points
- 1 Premier Annual Pass through the Air Miles Personal Shopper
- baggage fees paid with Scene+ points
- flights booked through Air Miles
- lounge access for the family at MCO
- Starbucks giftcards for snacks and caffeine
In terms of savings at the park, our Annual Passes got us 15% off food and merchandise. I also bought a Mardi Gras food card for $120 that had a value of $150.
I ran the numbers on our "break-even" with the annual passes. We're in the red by $280 USD if we had bought tickets straight up. And in the red by $880 USD if we had bought the 3 days get 2 free tickets. I think we'll break even by the next trip either way!
We really loved our Universal trip. My daughter was fully and completely surprised. It's the best my husband has felt in over a year. It was fun to create and deploy the cost-savings strategy. My husband and I are hoping to do an "adult" trip soon if we can find someone to take care of the kids.
I struggled with the decision to travel over March Break. My husband has long covid and my toddler is not yet vaccinated. I was speaking with my friend who is a psychologist and she really encouraged me to go. She said the change of scenery and warmth does wonders for people.
I also struggled because Disney isn't yet selling Annual Passes. Ideally we would have started both with the "Year of" plan at the same time. However I finally decided to go on a YOLO basis. If there is one thing the last few years has shown me, the future is never predictable and I need to seize the moments when they come. I bought N95s for everyone and wall-to-wall insurance and off we went.
We headed to Universal for 6 days over March Break. We surprised my daughter for her 11th birthday. I woke her up at 3 a.m. last Saturday and told her we had to go to the airport to "meet some people". The "people" were friends of mine who got up at 4 a.m. and met us dressed up as wizards with a banner and balloons. They told her she was going to Harry Potter Wizarding World and she shrieked! (Sidebar: Her guess was that we would be meeting a Ukrainian family at the airport to welcome and help them and she was excited about that idea. We are turning that interest into a fundraiser we will do next weekend.)
The rest of the first day we got settled, went to the American Girl store and got groceries at Publix.
(We stayed at the Residence Inn Near Universal on points, for the space and ability to make our own food. I wanted to keep costs down and reduce our exposure by avoiding eating indoors. Other benefits I discovered were avoiding March Break food lines and calorie regulation. Also it's not really pleasant for us to eat in restaurants with a picky, active toddler. I think I would do it this way again but food plan a little better. We spent about $200 on food over the 6 days and ended up abandoning some unopened in the fridge. I know this doesn't work for everyone but it went well for us.)
The next day we went to guest services and bought 3/4 Premier Annual Passes and picked up the one we bought with Air Miles Personal Shopper. We also got my daughter's disability assistance pass set up. The customer service with all of this was so excellent I had to pass on my regards to the supervisor. It was absolutely welcoming and wonderful.
This was the day it was 6 degrees Celsius so even though it was March Break, the first few hours of the day were really low in attendance. As a result we were fully immersed in Harry Potter world. My daughter had on her robes and we took in the detail and enchantment. We went to Ollivanders and she was selected for the wand ceremony. Her want had a unicorn hair core in it which is lovely because we all think if her as our unicorn. We had butterbeer, did spells, and went on rides.
For my son who is 3, the Jurassic Park area really did it for him. We spent hours chilling out and exploring Camp Jurassic. What a cool, cool play area. He also really loved the shows and parade at Universal Studios Florida.
We left the parks each day by 1-2 p.m. for family naptime, followed by swims, supper and family movie nights. As a result, we really did need the 4-5 days we had to feel like we fully experienced the parks.
Our main souvenirs were:
- The Ollivander wand
- A refillable butterbeer mug
- A dinosaur bubble wand
- Chocolate frogs and every-flavour beans for gifts
Our "fun food" was:
- Every type of butterbeer except the hot kind (including fudge and ice cream)
- The "big pink" donut from Springfield
A lot of the week we had to contend with crowds but we used a few strategies:
- We rope-dropped early entry every morning which we got with the Annual Pass, arriving at the park between 6-6:20 a.m.
- We double-booked a hotel night at Royal Pacific ($475 USD + tax) to get two days of Express Passes. (We stayed there and the kids really enjoyed the pool.)
- We started each day at Harry Potter world and bailed by 8:30 a.m. each morning to avoid the wall-to-wall people.
- We wore masks in lines and on rides.
- Our Annual Passes come with free basic Express Passes after 4 p.m. but we didn't use that because we didn't have the energy lol.
The other big takeaway for me was the absolute necessity of noise cancelling headphones for all of the members of my family except me.
Onto my savings strategy with my "travel-hacking" hobby. We got:
- 5 nights on points at the Residence Inn
- 1 night at an airport hotel with Scene+ points
- 1 Premier Annual Pass through the Air Miles Personal Shopper
- baggage fees paid with Scene+ points
- flights booked through Air Miles
- lounge access for the family at MCO
- Starbucks giftcards for snacks and caffeine
In terms of savings at the park, our Annual Passes got us 15% off food and merchandise. I also bought a Mardi Gras food card for $120 that had a value of $150.
I ran the numbers on our "break-even" with the annual passes. We're in the red by $280 USD if we had bought tickets straight up. And in the red by $880 USD if we had bought the 3 days get 2 free tickets. I think we'll break even by the next trip either way!
We really loved our Universal trip. My daughter was fully and completely surprised. It's the best my husband has felt in over a year. It was fun to create and deploy the cost-savings strategy. My husband and I are hoping to do an "adult" trip soon if we can find someone to take care of the kids.
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I knew that if I could just get him there 
he would want to do a family vacation in Florida to experience it once. WE enjoyed our trip soooooooooo much. Probably even more given that we had been talking about booking a last minute get-away at an all inclusive somewhere warm...then the world shut down. We have both worked through the whole pandemic (we both have essential service jobs) and really needing some downtime that didn't include being in a part of the world where " it who shall not be named" is/was such a focus. I/We finally felt like we were back in " normal times".
